Emperors & Queens
by Mystikat
Summary: Fifty ways in fifty sentences to bring a Fire Nation Prince and a Water Tribe Peasant together. [Zuko x Katara]
1. 01 to 05

_Note: The following are completed challenges for the LJ community 1sentence; all the sentences are Zuko x Katara related and all are disconnected. I will be uploading five challenge sentences per chapter til all fifty are up. Thank you for reading!_

**01 - Comfort**  
After his latest trick and taunt in response to her attempts at kindness, Katara (cheeks numbed red, hair knotting) can only reply; "If that was true," (If I was your mother) "I'd break you over my knee."

**02 – Kiss**  
"Everything about you is a weapon," she struggles to hiss against him, jerking; he regards her and forgoes an answer to lean in again; a warlord sending Trojan horses to the high walls of her heart; he'll prove her right, then.

**03 – Soft**  
A flash (burning bright; outlining hands) against the courtroom walls; then a shiver, retreating, as she falls, streaming, just out of reach for him to soften the crash.

**04 – Pain**  
He flinches away from her; lips pulled into a sneer as she grips his shoulder, returns her hand to his stripped face and she shakes her head with a tight reprimand, "This is how you know it's working."

**05 – Potatoes**  
What grows in her garden are the most painfully practical plants and day after day she tends to it; carefully weeding out the bright flowers that attempt to sneak in – she is practical, herself, and looks more to the plot than to him and he supposes that she'll never allow anything to grow there without permission; unlike him: the only one foolish enough to let her take root when he wasn't looking.


	2. 06 to 10

**06 – Rain**  
It's one, two drops ("Don't bite your lip: I'll do it for you") and then it is pouring.

**07 – Chocolate**  
The pastry that had tasted so moist before she caught sight of _him_ (the Prince, cat to their mouse) suddenly lost its appeal - its flavor and she swallowed the stale lump to call out a warning to Aang.

**08 – Happiness**  
She hogs the covers at night, he'd rather glare than grin, but she has someone who acknowledges her and he's found someone he can trust; it takes more then a chill at night or an attitude problem to destroy this.

**09 – Telephone**  
'_She'd seduced him for the riches_', the rumors would spread and kinder ones would say she did it for the power to save her Homeland (that desperately needed a hero of any kind), but even the kindest never seriously thought she'd fallen in love with her disfigured enemy; never minding that truth _is_ stranger than fiction and that he'd been the one doing the seducing.

**10 – Ears**  
Alcohol has never agreed with his element's nature, but nothing's stopping Katara from partaking and, later, nothing's stopping her when she creeps onto him, takes his earlobe in her teeth and tells him flammable secrets in his ear.


	3. 11 to 15

**11 – Name**  
Katara has yet to call him 'Prince' and he could never thank her enough for that.

**12 – Sensual**  
He never speaks to her but to hiss orders, even after all these months since his addition and she pats his cheek, smirks and departs with a "Still so cold, eh, Mr. Snake?" and he thinks to show her just how warm he can be.

**13 - Death**  
He has seen a man die to preserve pride and Zuko, to his credit, does not wonder which is worth more as he steps toward her.

**14 – Sex**  
There is surrender, then a breath (his exhale to her inhale); she arches and the world has shattered: leaving them whole among the wreckage.

**15 – Touch**  
She'll reach for him, sometimes, and then think better of it.


	4. 16 to 20

**16 – Weakness**  
It's horrible to watch a Waterbender dehydrate, to see their spirit curl up and flicker out (he's mixing it up again; a Waterbender, at times, will shimmer; and that's a close as their appearances get to flickering) as well as their body; this is why, and for no other reason, he gives her what is left of his own disappearing rations.

**17 – Tears**  
Out of sheer hysteria she tries to scream (_make them stop_), but Zuko covers her mouth and bruises her arm in his grip to keep her out of sight and she dampens his hand while he saves her life in place of Aang's (stop).

**18 – Speed**  
"If I beat you, will you stop chasing him?" He shifts; replies, "If I beat _you_, will you let me have him?"

**19 – Wind**  
She hears someone calling her, pleading with her ("No, not him; don't go with him.") and she risks one glance behind her before grasping his hand to step onto the ship; oh, it was just the wind.

**20 – Freedom**  
She turned; he bared his teeth in a bastardization of a grin as if to say, "You thought you were rid of me? It's not that easy, girl."


	5. 21 to 25

**21 – Life**  
They had always been backwards (her goal had been to master waterbending, then it became "save the world" and in the second action she accomplished the first; he'd only wanted to return home, but in the abandonment of that dream, gained it) and that is what pushed them onward.

**22 – Jealousy**  
It's not _fair_; the Avatar gave her a place, but why couldn't it have been by his side?

**23 – Hands**  
Here is a girl with rust on her hands; surrounded by discarded shackles and she is _nobody's_ prisoner, especially not for his purposes.

**24 – Taste**  
The Empress' meals were stone cold the first week of her joint reign with her husband: until he noticed her grimaces and requested a taste of her soup (which she reluctantly allowed); when he returned the dish it was an edible temperature and all her meals thereafter as well; Zuko made sure of that.

**25 – Devotion**  
They cannot afford to waste time on each other; but they do, still, and it doesn't feel wasted.


	6. 26 to 30

_Note: I just wanted to pop in to express how amazed I am at all the reviews I've gotten (13!) and say hello to all of you coming in from RedNovember's rec! (If there are any coming in. ;D) If any of you don't know who RedNovember is... shame. Go read her stuff now. It is all awesome. Now, on with the show!  
_

**26 – Forever**  
Promises cannot always be kept and this is no exception, but Katara can't stop herself from asking "what if?" and he feels a tired part of him awake (hope) whenever she does.

**27 – Blood**  
It's humiliating that the only one in the (recently expanded) rag tag group that can explain the sudden appearance of blood on her thighs is the last person she wanted to ask.

**28 – Sickness**  
'_This has to be a fever_', he thinks when her hand brushes his; he hopes there is no cure.

**29 – Melody**  
She's never been the best singer, especially not _now_ with her voice cracking and fogged from disuse, but she wants Zuko (and, in turn, her) to get some decent sleep and this is the only thing that has ever worked on his persistent nightmares.

**30 – Star**  
Her only warning is: "I don't need such things; I _make_ my wishes come true."


	7. 31 to 35

**31 – Home**  
"Come on," she tugged him, "I know a place where the walls aren't listening."

**32 – Confusion**  
When he asks to hold the child (a dark girl; presumably the late Avatar's) she looks at him as if for the first time and, bewildered, consents.

**33 – Fear**  
Katara does not avoid him because she is scared; it is not as if his power intimidates or his ruthlessness makes her nervous; no, not even the fire that is out of control and burns more than just skin; no, it is because when he is near she feels that the heat of her could scar (anyone; everyone; _her_) and this is all too much like free falling.

**34 - Lightning/Thunder**  
This love does not bloom, but strikes like storm; leaving just as much damage in the aftermath and two ship-wreaked survivors.

**35 – Bonds**  
Here is a babe: black, black hair, blue eyes and a pride inherited from his father (or would that be his mother?)


	8. 36 to 40

_Note: At **Vicki So**'s request I'm putting up the LiveJournal link (livejournal dot com/community/1sentence/57168)__ to where the original entry is kept. Which makes me sad to know that some of you won't be reading beyond this chapter due to all of the sentences being there in one go. You can make this up to me by commenting there! Also, please feel free to give out any concrit you have; believe me, it helps._

**36 – Market**  
It is among the fruit and vegetable vendors he finds her; a basket on her arm, the gleam of the bargain hunt in her eye and the slow stiffening of her spine as she becomes conscious of his gaze.

**37 – Technology**  
Zuko is proud of the advances of his nation and brags about them in great detail; Katara, in turn, chatters about her family (Gran-Gran's dry advice and wit, Sokka's buffoonery, her father's gentle warmth) and he has become noticeably silent.

**38 – Gift**  
What he wants is the Avatar for his birthday (hog-tied and shipped off to his father), but he doubts telling her that will earn him anything more than a smack; so he claims a kiss instead (even though capturing the Avatar is what he _really_ wants… really).

**39 - Smile**  
There is a pleasant pressure in her abdomen that serves to remind her of the old butterflies that would accompany his quiet smiles and she lays her husband's hand over it to prompt another such smile to the surface.

**40 - Innocence**  
If Aang had known what the future had in store for them (for Katara) he would never have even joked about Zuko and the necklace; ignorance, you see, is not always bliss.


	9. 41 to 45

**41 – Completion**  
His nation is in ruins and his father is dead; he is finally back now that everything he came for is gone and he wonders why he should bother even getting up and, suddenly, there is an offered hand that he takes without thinking and rises.

**42 – Clouds**  
It was written in her palm, in her bones; it was foreseen even in the clouds, but fate must have made a mistake, somewhere, because it was Zuko that she found herself delivered to.

**43 – Sky**  
Being with him must have clipped her wings, she thinks, or maybe this is a different type of flight.

**44 – Heaven**  
He lays his head down on her thigh and thinks that he can finally, _finally_ rest when peace can be found in a mesh of blue and brown that is Katara.

**45 – Hell**  
The royalty fetish of the water siblings has become infamous; as well as the desperate impossibility of it.


	10. 46 to 50 finale

_Note: I just wanted to say a big 'Thank you' to all my readers before finishing this off. I really do love to hear your comments and I'm happy that you took the time to let me know what you think about this. And (since it's around that time) Happy Holidays! On with the show_**  
**

**46 – Sun**  
Aang's first line of defense is Katara, but Zuko holds fast to the conquering cliché of attacking at dawn.

**47 – Moon**  
Katara tells him about an old tradition (a practice only her Gran-Gran talks about anymore): rite of passage by way of moonlit swim in the freezing waters of her homeland that (if the gods felt merciful) allows the participants to return home; cold, cranky, but _reborn_.

**48 – Waves**  
He allows himself to be pulled along as he has before (as he would again); Zuko is keenly aware that he'd be lost in her wake if he ever let go.

**49 – Hair**  
His people wear their hair like crowns: with golden clasps and not a strand out of place; she (in sharp contrast) wears it like a tail, like a beckoning tangle that he swears has ensnared him.

**50 – Supernova**  
The words are never said out loud (they are made known through brief touches and chats over tea and his unblemished face) for their hearts just might burst: it's more than just saying them, now; it's _feeling_ them.


End file.
